Piano is one of the most difficult musical instruments to learn and to master. Beginning students often struggle as several skills need to be mastered in order to play even simple pieces fluently. Among others, three such difficulties presented in learning piano are: (1) knowing which keys are represented by notes printed on sheets; (2) memorizing and playing key sequences to the rhythm correctly; and (3) playing simultaneously while reading notes.
These difficulties, among others, tend to discourage new learners, many of whom eventually quit prematurely. Many services and products are designed to help ease some of these difficulties. For example, there are an abundance of piano teachers, books, video-based and software-based instructional materials that seek to alleviate the first difficulty by providing the background knowledge needed to start playing.
Most early stage piano learners quickly become frustrated due to the large number of mistakes made before even a short segment is memorized. As a result, several hardware products have been commercialized to help with this second difficulty. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,525,011 B2, as well as a number of prior patents it cites, describe devices, both standalone and those integrated into digital or acoustic keyboards, that guide learners by using lights, usually LEDs mapped to standard keys to indicate which keys are to be pressed. Chinese Patent No. CN202917045U and CN103778821A describe similar devices with some variations. All similar products rely on some sort of object placed or mounted on a piano keyboard, with a plurality of lights to provide guidance.
Finally, separate software products are available to help learners associate notes with their corresponding keys. Usually, these products take the form of simple games. When the user hits a correct key associated with a note or a set of notes displayed on the screen, an objective is achieved in the game. Conversely, if the user fails to strike the correct key, an error mark is displayed.
All such products and hardware devices do provide their intended benefits. For example, by following LED indicator lights on hardware assistance devices, the chances of pressing incorrect keys are greatly reduced, and therefore the frustration that comes along. However, several areas can be improved: (1) while services and products that provide instructions are tremendously useful, they do little to ease learners' frustration in repeatedly playing sequences incorrectly; (2) most hardware devices include a separate object placed on the piano keyboard, which can become a distraction as it covers parts of the keyboard; (3) all devices with indicator lights create a reliance on the lights themselves. Therefore, although learners avoid making mistakes, they tend to play by following the lights instead of trying to memorize the key sequences to play without any assistance, which is the eventual goal. Most devices and their accompanied software, if any, lack the intelligence to steer learners from following to memorizing the intended key sequences; and (4) all software based instructional products and hardware based assistance devices are designed to relieve learners from translating notes to their corresponds keys, which is a skill that every piano player need to master eventually.
Above all, other than human teachers, there is not a product currently available that unifies the benefits of all such products listed above and at the same time address the shortcomings of each individual type of products.
Therefore there is a need in the art for a system and method for assisting individuals in learning how to play the piano without creating a reliance on hardware or lighting devices placed on the keyboard of the piano and without limiting the individual's exposure and learning of the notes associated with each key.